Teen girl fears legitimacy of cousin-loving
Dear Amy: I am a 16-year-old girl in high school. I met a guy through a church event six months ago. We started talking, and then a month later he came to my house to hang out during the weekend.
His uncle was with him when he came over, and met my mom.
I started dating the guy, and my mom started dating my boyfriend's uncle!
Now my mom is going to marry his uncle, a person she's only known for four months.
I plan on being with my boyfriend and marrying him; I truly love him.
Since my mom is marrying his uncle that would make my boyfriend and me cousins by marriage.
It is not legal where I live to marry my cousin.
What should I do?
-- Confused Almost-Cousin
Dear Confused: Let's clear this up: First of all, even though (according to a report from the Journal of Genetic Counseling) there is an extremely small genetic risk to marrying a biological cousin, various states still have somewhat antiquated laws on the books discouraging unions between first cousins. There is still something of a taboo regarding marrying cousins.
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